The Elite 130 isnt a very shine case, but it is able to hold a ATX PSU and a fullsize graphics card.

I am going with the GTX680 instead of the planned GTX980, because I wasn't able to run CUDA applications with the GTX980 - it was recognized correct, CudaZ also shows the 980 but no tool used the card.

1. I removed everything out of the Akitio Case and used the Akitio-Hardware to mark inside of the Elite 130 where I have to drill new holes. I used screws with nuts as spacer (that way I was more flexible in adjusting it).

2. does it fit? yes...

3. I've done the same with the Riser Card, used a graphics card to get the correct position - then I connected the riser card by using the riser cable with the Akitio. Also I connected the Molex with the power cable of the PSU.

4. ...of course we need the PSU itself also in the case

5. lets get in the GTX680

SYSTEM PROFILER , LUXMARK, CUDA-Z:

When rendering the eGPU uses about 180-200 Watts, so far it runs pretty solid.

Next steps:

- getting a SWEX (if there is a shop in Germany offering it) (done, got it direct from Bplus)

- figuring out why the 980 isn't used for CUDA and then swapping the 680 with it.

Many thanks also at @Dschijn for giving me more infos, helped me a lot to finish this project in a short time.

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@sedor, glad to hear that my guide was helpful. I suppose you are using a custom EFI flashed GTX680 or the original Mac edition to get screen output, right? Do you get the screen output via eGPU + GTX980 or just from the nMP's own display interfaces (AMD FirePro)? And what CUDA apps aren't working with it? Have you tried OpenCL accelerated apps? AKiTiO and reference GTX980 should work together, but I haven't tested much GPGPU use.

MVC's theory might be correct that a 2014 MBP, nMP and 2014 Mac mini cannot detect the external monitor via eGPU on OS X, if the GPU is not EFI flashed.

He isn't using a custom EFI, the screen shots show that. One common thing with self-inited cards is that the RAM count goes down by 1 Mb, not sure why. So the 4096 Megs becomes 4095. With the EFI, RAM is full amount.

He may not have even tried to output to display via the 680, the shots don't show it running display. That is a very good question. I will have a current TB2 rMBP here very soon to speak of, hopefully I get to try it out before I leave town for Holidays.

He isn't using a custom EFI, the screen shots show that. One common thing with self-inited cards is that the RAM count goes down by 1 Mb, not sure why. So the 4096 Megs becomes 4095. With the EFI, RAM is full amount.

He may not have even tried to output to display via the 680, the shots don't show it running display. That is a very good question. I will have a current TB2 rMBP here very soon to speak of, hopefully I get to try it out before I leave town for Holidays.

Hmmmmm... Good point! My first setup was with a different card (started with the GTX680, which is flashed for Mac and after all worked I switched over to the GTX980)...

Btw: a test with a Radeon 5770 (Mac) was a total fail, it didn't work.

I am very interested in this if the theory proves correct. A few more tests and we can confirm this.

@sedor, glad to hear that my guide was helpful. I suppose you are using a custom EFI flashed GTX680 or the original Mac edition to get screen output, right? Do you get the screen output via eGPU + GTX980 or just from the nMP's own display interfaces (AMD FirePro)? And what CUDA apps aren't working with it? Have you tried OpenCL accelerated apps? AKiTiO and reference GTX980 should work together, but I haven't tested much GPGPU use.

MVC's theory might be correct that a 2014 MBP, nMP and 2014 Mac mini cannot detect the external monitor via eGPU on OS X, if the GPU is not EFI flashed.

Yes, a custom EFI - a original Mac Edition wasn't available and just offers 2GB RAM, I wanted to have more

For me it was of no interest using that card with a own display, the AMDs of the nMP are doing that job good enough - my main intension for getting a eGPU at the nMP was to become able using CUDA apps at the nMP.

He isn't using a custom EFI, the screen shots show that. One common thing with self-inited cards is that the RAM count goes down by 1 Mb, not sure why. So the 4096 Megs becomes 4095. With the EFI, RAM is full amount.

He may not have even tried to output to display via the 680, the shots don't show it running display. That is a very good question. I will have a current TB2 rMBP here very soon to speak of, hopefully I get to try it out before I leave town for Holidays.

As said above, I am using a flashed GTX680 - to be honest I don't know how it is flashed (got it from eBay), but this card shows the bootscreen (when using it at my cMP).

@all: Haven't tested it with a display at the GTX680 as my old TFT died a few days ago, today I got a old one from a neighbor. So I connected it to the card and powered up my system, the display stays black!

But as I mentioned above, this wasn't a important point for me, I have no need for that card showing a signal at the display - anyway if there is anything I can test/do to figure out what's going on/has to be done - I am open to help! Now, this makes me curious and I wan't also to know how we can fix that!

btw: the Radeon 5770 still refuses to run.

We have been working on EFIs different from cMP.

They are eGPU EFIs, giving boot screens on latest Macs.

I have a theory that TB2 Macs have become much more difficult to get eGPU screen output in OS X.

Let us know if you are able to get output.

@all: Haven't tested it with a display at the GTX680 as my old TFT died a few days ago, today I got a old one from a neighbor. So I connected it to the card and powered up my system, the display stays black!

But as I mentioned above, this wasn't a important point for me, I have no need for that card showing a signal at the display - anyway if there is anything I can test/do to figure out what's going on/has to be done - I am open to help! Now, this makes me curious and I wan't also to know how we can fix that!

btw: the Radeon 5770 still refuses to run.

As you have GTX680 correctly named under system report, I believe all the necessary kexts are loaded. I don’t know what display interface your monitor is connected, but you can try other cables and connectors as well. MVC says “GTX680 4GB cards lost upper DVI port after 10.9.2.”

Octane refuses to run without a CUDA card, so far it seems everything fine as it openes - but if you want to render a scene (take for example the hallway scene and click at the left pane at ... "Render Target DL") you'll see nothing happens. With the 680 it starts to render, with the 980 nothing happenes.

If you look at the Preferences / CUDA Devices you'll see all available cards - there are (with the 980) no Cores shown just a "?". Now this will fit to what I have seen what CudaZ shows:

GTX680: Multiprocessors 8 (1536 Cores)

GTX980: Multiprocessors 16 - no cores shown

Question is... is this caused by the drivers?

OpenCL runs fine with the 980, there it is running smooth.

The display is connected with DVI, I can try out a Displayport->DVI Adapter tomorrow.

Octane refuses to run without a CUDA card, so far it seems everything fine as it openes - but if you want to render a scene (take for example the hallway scene and click at the left pane at ... "Render Target DL") you'll see nothing happens. With the 680 it starts to render, with the 980 nothing happenes.

If you look at the Preferences / CUDA Devices you'll see all available cards - there are (with the 980) no Cores shown just a "?". Now this will fit to what I have seen what CudaZ shows:

GTX680: Multiprocessors 8 (1536 Cores)

GTX980: Multiprocessors 16 - no cores shown

Question is... is this caused by the drivers?

OpenCL runs fine with the 980, there it is running smooth.

Good observations. It seems that the CUDA driver is not fully functional with the GTX980. My 2014 15” MBPr shows the question mark too. The problem can also be partly application specific, because CUDA-Z beta works, though not showing cores either. Hopefully we will see better support in the future.

FYI, here is a screenshot of OctaneRender Demo version rendering hallway scene:

octanerenderer_demo.png

15” MBPr + AKiTiO + GTX780 6GB, not EFI flashed.

Good observations. It seems that the CUDA driver is not fully functional with the GTX980. My 2014 15” MBPr shows the question mark too. The problem can also be partly application specific, because CUDA-Z beta works, though not showing cores either. Hopefully we will see better support in the future.

FYI, here is a screenshot of OctaneRender Demo version rendering hallway scene:

octanerenderer_demo.png

15” MBPr + AKiTiO + GTX780 6GB, not EFI flashed.

Lets hope they update CUDA in the next time, I think this problem will happen with all other new cards too.

Nice, seeing the 780 really working - which one is that? 6GB of memory?

Lets hope they update CUDA in the next time, I think this problem will happen with all other new cards too.

Nice, seeing the 780 really working - which one is that? 6GB of memory?

Perhaps go back a CUDA version or two for 980?

as far as display out on eGPU I am noticing quite a few folks with TB2 Macs giving up on this (in OSX). Might be good to start tracking which work and which don't and seeing what the determining factor is

Will try other CUDA versions!

Only thing reg. running a display at the eGPU I can try is, if this works with my mid 2011 iMac.

Lets hope they update CUDA in the next time, I think this problem will happen with all other new cards too.

Nice, seeing the 780 really working - which one is that? 6GB of memory?

It's my first eGPU card, EVGA GTX 780 6GB SC w/ ACX cooler.

It's my first eGPU card, EVGA GTX 780 6GB SC w/ ACX cooler.

Thanks! Found a ASUS 780 with 6GB here, the EVGA isn't available - will try that ASUS.

Has anyone ever reported using a nMP with eGPU and getting display output in OS X?

I am puzzled why there are so few nMP owners on here.

Has anyone ever reported using a nMP with eGPU and getting display output in OS X?

I am puzzled why there are so few nMP owners on here.

I've tried it right now, using the GTX680 (which is flashed for showing the bootscreen) I don't get a signal at the display.

Yes, I am really curious if such a splitter will work and how it would be best combined with a Akitio.

(Or, but that doesn't belong to this thread, but it is also an option for me: using it with a cMP)

For CUDA on Maxwell, try 6.5.25.

6.5.25 works - but looks like the drivers are still not really done for the new generation of cards, the CUDA cores are still not recognized.

As far as nMP, here is a crucial test, try Mavericks vs Yosemite. I think that Yosemite may have introduced a new set of hurdles, esp on TB2 Macs.

Hmmmmm... Mavericks, that means I must see if I can grab a unused external drive and install Mavericks on it.

As far as the GTX680 being flashed for boot screens, as I explained in a rather wordy post there are now AT LEAST 4 different versions of EFI out there for GPUs. Apple being Apple they have chosen to NOT use UEFI like Windows world. They have also chosen not to use the EFI that was on cMP but instead yet another non-standard EFI.

If you look through my recent posts here you will find it, long & wordy.

I'll look for it!

For this test I have just chosen the 680 because I know that this card worked fine when used at my cMP, my other cards are unflashed cards and I have never used a display at them.

I will have a nMP here in a few days.

Look forward to definitive answers on eGPU questions on these.

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As I expected, I can only enable external display via eGPU in OS X by using one of our custom eEFI roms. Regular card or card with standard Mac EFI never shows display. Either way CUDA works but Apple has done something with most TB2 Macs that disables external display via eGPU. Currently I can only enable a single display this way, but am hopeful to enable more.

Next: testing with 4K at 60Hz. I have a feeling that about to discover something interesting.

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But I continue to have issues with something that should be simple, running a nMP on eGPU in Windows 8.1.

I can do it with the greatest of ease on 2014 Mini, but the nMP is an enigma. Oddly, I can use Kepler cards for boot screens and screen output and Maxwell cards for CUDA. But can't get Win 8 to use an Nvidia card. If I use EFI card it is weirdly invisible, as in, it is outputting to display but isn't present in Device Manager. And if I try to install Nvidia Drivers it fails saying that there are no Nvidia cards present, which I am seeing on a display run by an Nvidia card that doesn't have a driver. If I use a Non-EFI card I get the usual "Error 12", which is why I am curious if I should reformat the drive and start over.

Both the nMP and the 2014 Mini are running an EFI version of Windows, I am fairly sure.

If I put Disk Utility into Debug I can see and mount the EFI partition.

And both of them have a Microsoft section on there.

Oddly, only the Mini has the "Microsoft Reserved" section. (I will go get the precise words and/or screenshots and update this)

I just need to know if anyone else has gotten Windows 8 running on NMP with eGPU.

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But I continue to have issues with something that should be simple, running a nMP on eGPU in Windows 8.1.

I can do it with the greatest of ease on 2014 Mini, but the nMP is an enigma. Oddly, I can use Kepler cards for boot screens and screen output and Maxwell cards for CUDA. But can't get Win 8 to use an Nvidia card. If I use EFI card it is weirdly invisible, as in, it is outputting to display but isn't present in Device Manager. And if I try to install Nvidia Drivers it fails saying that there are no Nvidia cards present, which I am seeing on a display run by an Nvidia card that doesn't have a driver. If I use a Non-EFI card I get the usual "Error 12", which is why I am curious if I should reformat the drive and start over.

Both the nMP and the 2014 Mini are running an EFI version of Windows, I am fairly sure.

If I put Disk Utility into Debug I can see and mount the EFI partition.

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I come from China, and I also use EGPU 2012 13''. GPU is GTX660. In the use of the process often appear screen blank. GPU driver stops working. Cause crash. The power supply is 550W ATX. Do not know you will not appear this problem. If you are how to solve it? thank you。